I cover high school sports for azcentral, with emphasis on football, cross country, badminton, girls basketball and baseball. I'll also be covering the AIA. I'm a Northwestern graduate and a Dallas native. I am sometimes good at fantasy football. Sometimes I'm horrible.

Yuma Cibola’s Montoya commits to ASU cross country

Arizona State may have had a tough time keeping Arizonaâ€™s top football players in state on National Signing Day, but the cross country team faced no such disappointment.

The Sun Devils landed three-time Division I champion Bernie Montoya from Yuma Cibola. Montoya spent much of the season as the consensus No. 1 boys runner in the country, although he dropped to 16th in the final Milesplit.us rankings in mid-December.

Montoya announced his commitment Tuesday on his Facebook page. He will officially sign his Letter of Intent at a school ceremony on Friday.

â€śItâ€™s a pretty big moment for me,â€ť he said. â€śI want to do something special.â€ť

Montaya had a multitude of offers, and took official visits to Texas, Oregon, Oklahoma State and Colorado along with visiting the Sun Devils.

In the end, his relationship with ASU coach Louie Quintana and his family history outweighed all other factors.

â€śIt feels right to me,â€ť Montoya said. â€śIt feels right to say that Iâ€™m a Sun Devil. Most of my family has graduated from there.â€ť

All four of the other schools Montoya visited were ranked in the final Division I Coachesâ€™ Poll, the highest being top-ranked Oklahoma State and the lowest 16th-ranked Oregon.

ASU was not ranked in the final poll, but Montoya hopes he and his fellow recruits can raise the programâ€™s profile.

â€śI know my commitment to Arizona State is going to make a huge impact with recruiting, if we do our job there,â€ť Montoya said. â€śI believe in Coach Quintana and what he can do with me.â€ť

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